1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multifunctional information processing apparatus integrally including a telephone set, a facsimile (fax) machine, a personal computer, and the like.
2. Related Background Art
A conventional apparatus integrally including a telephone set, a facsimile machine, a personal computer, and the like is disclosed in commonly-assigned U.S. application Ser. No. 269,733 titled "Multifunctional Information Processing Apparatus" and filed Nov. 10, 1988 by Furuya et al. now abandoned. When the apparatus serves as a fax machine, print output on a roll of sheets is started upon reception of data by the apparatus as in a normal fax machine. However, when the printer cannot be used or a confidential fax is sent, fax data is stored in an auxiliary memory as a file. The details of the above operations are described in FIG. 18 of the above U.S. application.
However, in the above prior art, since all fax documents are printed and output on sheets, (1) an amount of sheets used during reception is greatly increased, (2) even a fax document which is not required to be printed on an output sheet, i.e., which need only be temporarily checked on a screen because this document is not so important, and (3) fax data cannot be preserved or edited on a screen, and edited data cannot be transmitted to other fax machines.
Some "personal computer/fax machines" each integrally including a personal computer and a fax machine can eliminate the above drawbacks (1) to (3). In this case, an apparatus results in a large system because it must be connected to a personal computer, a fax board, a printer, and an image reader. These units are connected through a general purpose interface such as RS232C or centronics. The processing time is inevitably prolonged due to data transfer speeds between the units. The personal computer/fax machine primarily aims at transmitting data such as a word processing document drafted by the personal computer to a destination without outputting it on paper.